Manager Gary Bowyer has hailed the victory over Plymouth in midweek as being Blackpool’s best performance of the season so far, and Mark Cullen also gave his thoughts on the game.
Beginning with Bowyer, he told the Official Site that the performance put in at Home Park that saw Blackpool take a three nil victory with goals from Cullen, Brad Potts and Jordan Flores was the best showing of the season so far in his eyes.
‘Without doubt it’s our best performance of the season. Going into the game they’re second in the league and we knew the challenge that lay ahead for us. To a man we were outstanding tonight. I think we started the game very well, the pitch helped obviously with the style of play we want to play and how we want to play. We made a little bit of a tactical game-plan for Plymouth and it worked for us, especially in the first-half. They then had to change their shape, which is a credit to our lads. The decision making and playing the conditions – it’s not stopped raining the whole game – we’ve made some great decisions tonight.’
Backing up the showing and victory over Morecambe, Bowyer went on to say the clean sheet was vital for us as well.
‘In the last minute, when there’s a corner, I wouldn’t have probably been as happy as I am now if they’d have scored because we really wanted that. To come away from home, play the way that we have – and we should have had two penalties as well by the way – it’s a complete performance away from home.’
He also had praise for the 127 fans who made the trip.
‘I’m absolutely delighted for those supporters, that is an unbelievable effort from them. I can’t thank them enough and that’s why we made the case of everybody going over there and thanking them. That effort that they made was matched by the players, which is something we spoke about at the hotel before the game.’
What was important for Bowyer now was that with a standard being set, Blackpool continued to live up to it.
‘They can enjoy tonight but we’ve got another difficult game on Saturday and that’s now our standard. That’s what we’ve got to go and produce.’
As for Cullen, in his interview following the game he knew it had been a collective showing on the day.
‘The lads worked extremely hard from back-to-front and we took our chances when they came along, and we could have had a couple more as well. To be able to put in a performance like that and get a result like that is extremely pleasing. Three goals away from home and a clean sheet to a team that`s near the top of the league doesn`t get much better than that.’
With the victory meaning that Blackpool have now beaten the top four sides in the division this season, Cullen went on to say that we’ve shown we can compete we just need to show consistency now.
‘We knew what their threats were and I think we stopped them brilliantly, and it was probably some of the best counter-attacking we`ve done all season – and that`s saying something. We`ve shown throughout the season when playing the top teams that we can always get results. To score three goals away from home at a team near the top of the table is unheard of a lot of the time but we`ve managed to do it and now we have to build on it.’
As for his own goal on the day, his fifth of the season, he ended by saying.
‘That`s what I`m paid to do score goals. It`s been frustrating for me on a personal level not playing as much as I`ve wanted, but I`ve got my chance in the last two games and scored two goals. I just need to carry on now and keep taking them chances when they come.’
